1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motorcycle having a brake control unit, specifically, an antilock brake system unit (hereinafter, referred to as “ABS unit”) and an improved brake hose structure.
2. Description of the Background Art
There is a known motorcycle that is designed with a connecting member attached to a main frame pipe near a head pipe, for connecting a metal brake line, extending from a brake control unit, to a flexible brake line extending to a front wheel brake (For example, see published Japanese Patent Document JP-U No. S58-188287).
However, in the structure of the known art, since the connecting member is mounted on the main pipe at an upper side thereof, a length of the brake hose, extending from the connecting member to the front wheel brake, necessarily increases. When the length of the brake hose increases, there is a need to make the flexible brake hose with a large slack portion therein, so as to be able to accommodate left/right steering of a front wheel, or expansion and contraction of the front forks, and thus, an external appearance of the known motorcycle is diminished by these large slack portions.
In addition, there is a known motorcycle with an ABS unit that automatically controls hydraulic pressure of a hydraulic brake under certain conditions, to effectively prevent a lock of the vehicle wheel when the brake operates. In the known motorcycle with the ABS unit, since a front brake lever and a rear brake pedal are separately connected to the ABS unit by respective brake lines, and since the front and rear brake calipers are also connected to the ABS unit by respective brake lines, the length of each of the brake lines increases and piping becomes complicated. Therefore, there is a need to simplify piping work, while improving the external appearance of the motorcycle.